Saturday, December 31, 2011

Hot Mix 2011: #60 to 51

Looks like this will be our final post of 2011... It's been real. We got half of Hot Mix 2011 done this year. Top 50 will be posted next year. See you then! (We're in a rush, so yeah... minimal effort...)

60 Grass Is Green “Tongue In Cheek”On Chibimoon, Grass Is Green continues banging out their specific brand of cathartic progressive-hardcore, carefully selecting more bizarre guitar patches, chords and rhythms seldom heard elsewhere (possibly all invented by the band themselves) making it sound like they've got some serious demons to battle. "Tongue In Cheek" is probably our favorite example from their 2011 material, although we're damn good and ready for GIG to take it a step further on Ronson, their forthcoming LP set for release early next year. Tongue in Cheek by Grass is Green

59 Radiohead “Little By Little” / “The Daily Mail”We fucked up last week by waiting until just now to check out Radiohead’s new single which has been out for 10 days or something.. So we haven't really given enough digestion time for either song. We’ve decided to impulsively include “The Daily Mail” after only discovering it a few hours ago (just to be on the safe side) for three reasons: #1 Cool song, #2 Shockingly discernible lyrics, and #3 It sounds like it could’ve been on Amnesiac. Perhaps this single was purposely released late in the year to suggest more traditional rock upon their next LP??

“Little By Little” is the one TKOL track that beckoned us throughout 2011 and a big reason why we ended up easing into the other seven songs. Like most people, we got into this record by “listening to the album” (weird concept, we know), as opposed to odd promo TV appearances like SNL or The Colbert Report - fun to watch for Radiohead fans, although we’re doubting it won them any new followers since the music is pretty much inaccessible to Joe Football Beer D-Bag.

57 Jay-Z & Kanye West “That’s My Bitch”With its James Brown samples and Q-Tip’s production assistance, “That’s My Bitch” is the most accessible song from Watch The Throne, although not necessarily the most radio-friendly. Funk-beats (unfortunately) have no place on current hiphop stations (which is the exact reason why it SHOULD be a single... Another huge opportunity lost due to shit marketing...). Kanye gets to brag (what else is new) about enjoying life among the 1%: “I paid for them titties, get your own.” “My dick worth money.” Gross. No one wants to hear about your Kanye-wang. Keep it in your shorts next time.

P.S. Technically a 2010 song which fell under our radar WITH A GOOD EXCUSE: It leaked 11/22/10, the same day as MBDTF’s release date. (The album version sounds better anyway.)

56 Katy B “Movement”We gave Katy B’s On A Mission a shot for being a "critics favorite." “Movement” won us over pretty quickly since it's the one that sounded most like Kylie Minogue (and because we LOVE handclaps). It's definitely a solid full-length thanks to super-slick production and Katy's knack for vocal hooks, although we disagree with it's tag as a “dubstep” record. More like "2-step," a genre we haven't heard nearly as much since the early-2000’s.

55 Curren$y “She Don’t Want A Man”More super-dark-sounding hiphop... Love love love. We’re lost for a decent critique this time around (unless we discuss the hot chick in the video which would be cheap), so instead we’d like to say how happy it’s made us that Beavis And Butthead called 3Oh!3 “asswipes.” God, it’s about time they really ripped on someone, and if anyone deserved it, it’s 3Oh!3. In a way, this is the moment of B&B’s return that we’ve truly been waiting for... Back to Curren$y, we're not sure if Weekend at Burnie's or whatever it's called was a mixtape or an official release... It kind of doesn't matter, we're just filling space so the picture fits n stuff..

54 Pet Milk “Phantom Lovers”We finally learned one fun fact about Pet Milk, which is they're from Philadelphia. We knew zero fun facts last year when "Cherry Outline" placed at #56. Improvements are fun. Their 2nd EP includes more jangle-guitar, more pop elements, and higher production value, and we're hoping for more new shit from them in 2012. Also we now love 2 bands with the word "Milk" in their name (along with Milk Music). Phantom Lovers by PET MILK

53 Rob Crow “Prepare To Be Mined”#MoreHandclaps! The stream of quick guitar riffs in this song sort of help it to sound like the younger distant cousin of Pinback's “From Nothing To Nowhere” (probably our favorite song from 2007). We’re considering this a REALLY good sign for next year... (Rob Crow LP’s always show up less than a year before Pinback records... Plus they released two 7-inches in 2011. Get ready.) Also you should follow Rob on twitter.

52 Jill Scott feat. Anthony Hamilton “So In Love”Our most sincere congratulations goes out to Tyler The Creator who wrote on twitter “I Ate Out Jill Scott” at least twice in 2011. We’re hoping it’s true. This song reminds us of the badass smooth jams that get played on WBLS (Today’s R&B and Classic Soul) out of New York. For some reason this is the most irresistible “soul” track we’ve heard in years (probably because it resembles late-70’s/early-80’s grocery store jams).

51 Rival Schools “Choose Your Adventure”Quicksand reunion? Let’s hope that’s coming. In the meantime, we’ll take Rival Schools, who unexpectedly owned the fuck out of their 2nd LP after a 10 year hiatus. Except not THAT unexpected since curveballs are a normal thing these days... The artists who we most anticipate usually don’t release the best albums anymore. Who would’ve suspected Rival Schools? Not us. “Choose Your Adventure” kinda sounds like if Muse decided to tone down on the theatrics and start kicking serious ass. (The bass somewhat resembles “Supermassive Black Hole,” but in a good way.)

what's it?

TASTE MY KIDS compiles recommendations for a happier and healthier existence, most often in the form of "best-of" lists, youtube posts, album or movie reviews, and various scribblings. We lived on Geocities starting in August 2000. In January 2009, times got tough and posts were on hiatus until a new host could be located. Geocities eventually died anyway, and now we live on blogspot. True story.